Kessel: Annual report is also a vision

To put it charitably, annual reports are often relatively dull affairs that wouldn’t contend for a spot on anyone’s springtime reading list. Sometimes, though, a report provides a vivid picture of what an organization has accomplished and, even more important, where it’s headed.

I believe the New York Power Authority’s recently released 2008 annual report passes this test. It underscores NYPA’s pivotal role at a time when the interrelationships of a reliable power supply, economic strength and environmental protection are increasingly evident.

The report spotlights NYPA’s activities in four critical areas: strengthening the state’s power supply infrastructure, bolstering its economy, promoting energy efficiency and developing new sources of clean, renewable energy. All are top priorities for Gov. David A. Paterson and, taken together, constitute my vision for NYPA and the significant contributions it can make to this state.

Much of the focus is on the authority’s accomplishments in 2008. But what I find equally striking is the further progress that we’ve made thus far in 2009 on Long Island and elsewhere.

We have, for example, moved aggressively to create or protect jobs through allocations of our economical electricity or other measures. I’ve written here previously about our 15-megawatt hydroelectric allocation to Brookhaven Lab. More recently, our trustees approved an “Industrial Incentive Award” to Positive Promotions in Hauppauge as part of a program to offset the electricity costs of companies at risk of closing or leaving the state. This will help to retain about 460 full-time jobs.

We’re carrying out a project with Nassau County to install thousands of highly efficient light-emitting-diode traffic signals on county roads, saving taxpayers almost $1 million a year. In Suffolk County, we have major projects in progress at such facilities as the state office building in Hauppauge, Suffolk Community College, Islip Town Hall and Pilgrim State Hospital. And we’ve joined the consortium, formed by Con Edison and the Long Island Power Authority, to advance the proposed offshore wind facility in the Atlantic Ocean.

These initiatives didn’t make it into the annual report, but the philosophy that led to them is clearly expressed. You can access the report at www.nypa.gov. I hope you’ll take a careful look at it.

Richard Kessel is the president and chief executive of the New York Power Authority and former chairman and CEO of LIPA.

Take a look at this article from the Buffalo News which says that Kessel spent $800,000 of taxpayer money and NYPA power to create each job at NYPA. Does anyone out there think this makes sense? No wonder rates here on Long Island are so high.